Friday, November 8, 2013

The Tomorrow People, Season 1, Episode 5: All Tomorrow's Parties

Stephen is giving his keeper, Darcy a headache, by
charging in without backup, again (of
course, it’s her who will be killed if he screws up). He manages to grab
the paranormal he’s chasing but holds back on hitting them when he sees it’s a
woman (why do they grab these people? Can’t they just teleport out of your
hands?). She has no such compunction and merrily starts throttling him.

Turns out it’s just a training exercise. Seriously, you
break the rules and ignore your superior in a TRAINING exercise?! What nonsense
is this? Why would you break the rules in a performance review? There follows a
lecture on how daft it is not to wait for backup and another lecture on being
squeamish about hitting a target if the target is female: Jedikiah lays on
thick how dangerous and evil rogue paranormals are even if female. Stephen
mopes off and Jedikiah gets a call from an older man who is not impressed by
his recent operations (and choosing to send in an untrained trainee rather than
an actual agent) and wants Stephen brought in at the behest of some mysterious
big boss

At HQ, Stephen tells Cara a “chick” caused his black eye
which Cara then decides is pretty much deserved. She has info on a new
Paranormal who was captured by Ultra called Mark – she wants Stephen to witness
him having his powers stripped (though not rescue the man since Mark was in the
habit of freeing maximum security prisoners). And new character – Irene! A 17
year old super genius and their genetics expert. After much scientific babble,
it’s clear she thinks she can create an antidote to Jedikiah’s “cure”

Outside there’s a bit of a drama. New recruit Kurt is
being read the riot act by John for going to see his mother – potentially exposing
them. Stephen speaks up because he’s the protagonist and has to stick his oar
in and the group asks why Stephen’s the super special case who gets to live
with his family? (Protagonist power!) John thanks Stephen for his oh-so-useful
intervention and points out Stephen is undercover (seriously, there are
janitors at Ultra who know Stephen is a double agent by now) and that his
father will lead them to the Promised Land – the Refuge. Uh-huh, people are
duly sceptical about the idea that the Refuge even exists but John adds they
can leave if they want – just don’t come back.

Cara catches up with John and asking him if he really had
to let loose both barrels on a teenager who was missing his mother. She reminds
him of the times when they used to go out and have fun – and how everyone’s
getting frustrated being cooped up – and yes it’s a risk but why go to all this
effort to survive if you’re not letting yourself live? John blames the
discontent on Stephen because everyone was fine before that (uh, Cara just
pointed out that, until recently, you didn’t all hide… so correlation =/=
causation John).

At Ultra, Darcy knocks the new captive, Mark, out in
preparation for having his powers stripped and Stephen arrives to apologise to
Darcy and to promise to start acting like an agent in training. She tests that
by having him pass her the syringe of the “cure” which she then injects Mark
with. The man convulses and Stephen pockets a spare vial when no-one is looking
before Jedikiah calls him in for a conference. He’s going on a road trip to see
the big bosses! Made all the more fun with a not-too-subtle threat of death if
he doesn’t show up.

Stephen goes to the HQ to tell John, but he’s distracted
by a challenge from Cara – if she wins, they’re all going to go out for a party
(of course, this is all Stephen’s fault in John’s eyes). This means John is
singularly unhelpful and unsympathetic about Stephen going to see the people
who tried to have his father killed and may do the same to him. Stephen gives
John grief for making him his scapegoat for his problems.

But that could actually be an important issue – it’s time to go to Cara and
John’s battle to see if they can party or not. They fight (and Cara telepaths
to John that normal couples talk through their differences, which is odd
considering Cara told Stephen that she and John weren’t a couple). Of course
Cara wins, using a grate to pin John. That settled, they set off to party.

Cara dresses up and tries to get John to do the same but
he, again, questions why they are risking their lives for a party – and implies
it’s Stephen after all the risks they’ve had lately. Cara counters that those
risks are what made her look at her life and decide how she wanted to live. She
asks him to come with her so they can pretend to be a normal couple. He
refuses.

Onwards – Stephen judging Astrid’s dresses for the school
dance (they’re all perfect. This is not helpful) and she wants answers about
him disappearing in front of her – and won’t be distracted by dresses. But revelations
are delayed by Stephen being called away suddenly by Jedikiah.

The meeting requires a bag on his head to super-secret
location, he’s led inside without Jedikiah and left alone, where he is
contacted telepathically (after three lines Stephen realises the boss is *gasp*
a paranormal… the telepathy gave it away, darn it). Big boss is hunting his own
side because he wants to be on the winning side of the war - and he is
determined to see what secrets Stephen is hiding

Cara blinks to Stephen’s home and they both admire each
other’s party clothes – and Stephen tells her about big boss trying to get in
his head and how he isn’t sure he managed to keep him out. He is worried about
the party – but Cara is confident she’ll sense them and get them to cover.

They go to the party, Cara looks sad for a bit and of course John turns up.
Rather than have fun, Cara complains that John won’t let her read his mind
(boundaries, Cara!). This is interrupted by Cara having to watch Irene while
John keeps an eye on Russell (to stop him impressing a girl with his
telekinesis)

Stephen looks like he has to duck out on Astrid again
when Jedikiah summons him to a surprise meeting: she tells him he’s running
late but she sees him get in a car with Jedikiah. She follows in a taxi to his
spooky secret rendez-vous. She tries to follow but is stopped by Darcy

In the party, Cara realises her telepathy is down, she
can’t hear anyone. John notices D-chips along the bar – it’s an ambush, they
can’t jump. From the balcony, Stephen and Jedikiah watch as kill teams pull
guns and start shooting the Tomorrow People. Stephen breaks free of Jedikiah
and uses his super-duper powers to break the electrics, cutting the lights and
giving John and Russell chance to knock the gun wielding humans down and help
their people escape. Once out the building they start to jump away, but Cara is
helping an injured friend and an agent nearly shoots her – until John shoots
him. With a gun. A
lethal gun – showing he can kill.

Everyone returns to the HQ, including Stephen, to
desperately heal the injured, Irene is dying but John won’t risk a hospital.
Cara mentally chants how it’s all her fault – Stephen lifts Irene and teleports
her out.

When everyone’s cleared out, Cara confronts John on being
a part of the Annex project and him not telling her; he wanted to keep it
secret, he didn’t want to be seen as a monster. She doesn’t accept that and is
angry he kept the secret

Stephen returns from the hospital and John is having Cara
test everyone to see who gave them up to Ultra (I don’t get it, why reveal their
party plans but not the HQ?) Stephen reveals it could be him after the big
mental search he went through which he told Cara about: he volunteers to go
next see if Cara can tell if Jedikiah’s partner learned of the party from him.
But before the scan starts, Kurt breaks – apparently only John was supposed to
be taken. Yes, Kurt gave them up to Ultra (despite Ultra hunting him not long
ago?) They ambushed him at his mother’s (John was right it was risky) and
threatened to kill her. John has to hold Russell back from attacking since they
lost 3 people in the attack. Cara goes one better and rams him against the wall
with her telekinesis then teleports next to him holding the syringe with Ultra’s
cure.

Stephen tries to talk her down – the serum is hard to get
their hands on and it’s wasted on him. But Cara says he’s not one of them, not
anymore, and injects him and threatens to mangle his brain if he ever thinks of
telling Ultra where they are. Yeah I wouldn’t trust that

Stephen returns home to find Astrid waiting for him in
his room. He’s covered in Irene’s blood. His voice cracks and he tells her he
saw something awful and he’s not sure he can deal with it alone; he doesn’t
want to drag her into it. She says if it’s his life, she’s already in it. He
takes her hands and teleports her.

John needs to stop blaming every opinion Cara has that he
doesn’t like on Stephen. The idea that she either agrees with him or agrees
with Stephen completely removes the idea that Cara may, just MAY, actually have
an opinion or idea of her own. Especially since there’s no challenge to this –
as far as the show is concerned, Cara’s opinions ARE being shaped by Stephen.
In fact, Cara’s opinions are being used as a vehicle for Stephen – because all
of this “go out and have some fun” which John continually says “sounds like
Stephen” is bizarre because Stephen has never ever advocated that. He’s asked
John to lighten up ripping Kurt a new one, but get out and live like normal
people isn’t really Stephen’s campaign. I’m really glad Cara made it clear that
it was for HER that she is fighting this because it really needs emphasising a
lot more than it is being.

I’m also tried of the whole conflict between Stephen and
John. There’s little reason for it – if there were a leadership struggle I’d
almost understand but Stephen isn’t trying to influence anyone else. In fact,
it was pretty clear that the rest of the group don’t rate Stephen. Is it Cara? If
it is I want that to die because we don’t need the fighting-over-a-woman trope
AGAIN and it’s not like Stephen and Cara have pursued a romance. Why do we have
all this hostility? I don’t mind John being an arse if someone can point me
towards a decent reason WHY John is an arse

I do like Cara raising the point about living vs
surviving – it’s one that is touched on but rarely examined in many shows and
it could do with exploring, apart from anything else it does give wonderful
motivation for the risks the characters take.

I do not like Cara’s belief that she has the right to
everyone’s minds – maybe John didn’t want to reveal he had the power to kill?
Was that really something anyone but him needed to know now he’s trying to
avoid it and move past it? When it clearly traumatised him?

They need to work on teleportation – how can these people
be held like Kurt was by Cara without teleporting?